r left; on her right she contrived, too frequently for my
peace of mind, to reserve a vacant place for me, and she eyed me intently
across the room, under her persistent brows, until perforce I was drawn
to her side. I had to listen to a repetition of sharp queries and
replies, and affect a flattered gaiety, feeling myself most
uncomfortably, as Captain DeWitt (who watched us) said, Chip the son of
Block the father. By fixing the son beside her, she defeated the father's
scheme of coldness, and made it appear a concerted piece of policy. Even
I saw that. I saw more than I grasped. Love for my father was to my mind
a natural thing, a proof of taste and goodness; women might love him; but
the love of a young girl with the morning's mystery about her! and for my
progenitor!--a girl (as I reflected in the midst of my interjections)
well-built, clear-eyed, animated, clever, with soft white hands and
pretty feet; how could it be? She was sombre as a sunken fire until he at
last came round to her, and then her sudden vivacity was surprising.

Affairs were no further advanced when I had to obey the squire's commands
and return to Riversley, missing the night of the grand ball with no
profound regret, except for my father's sake. He wrote soon after one of
his characteristic letters, to tell me that the ball had, been a success.
Immediately upon this announcement, he indulged luxurious reflections, as
his manner was:

'To have stirred up the old place and given it something to dream of for
the next half century, is a satisfaction, Richie. I have a kindness for
Bath. I leave it with its factions reconciled, its tea-tables furnished
with inexhaustible supplies of the chief thing necessary, and the
persuasion firmly established in my own bosom that it is impossible to
revive the past, so we must march with the age. And let me add, all but
every one of the bills happily discharged, to please you. Pray, fag at
your German. If (as I myself confess to) you have enjoyment of old ways,
habits, customs, and ceremonies, look to Court life. It is only in Courts
that a man may now air a leg; and there the women are works of Art. If
you are deficient in calves (which my boy, thank heaven! will never be
charged with) you are there found out, and in fact every deficiency,
every qualification, is at once in patent exhibition at a Court. I fancy
Parliament for you still, and that is no impediment as a step. Jorian
would have you sit and wallow in